Backstory:

The gumballs seemed strangely timeless once placed in antique shot glasses. She said they reminded her of the timeless time trapped in the creations of Joseph Cornell, whose boxes she had held in a dim museum basement shortly after he died. She found herself putting together what she called “her thoughts” and constructing a large totemic figure...

— Louise Erdrich, Case File # 2, Client H, 2015

Table of Contents

Frame hand-lettered with obscured text by Louise Erdrich

star maps; Gitanes cigarette label

photograph Omphalos by X

vintage shot glasses; forty-year-old blue gumballs, won in drinking game in Fargo, North Dakota

silverware trays; Blessed Virgin Mary statuette from Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City